What is EtchDroid and what does it do?

Updated

EtchDroid is a free, open-source Android app that writes disk images to USB drives. Its main purpose is to create a bootable operating system USB drive when your laptop is dead — that is, when you have no working computer to run a traditional imaging tool, but you still have an Android phone and a USB drive. It requires no root access, shows no ads, and does no tracking. The source code is published on GitHub under the GNU GPLv3 license.

What EtchDroid actually does

EtchDroid takes a disk image file stored on your Android device and writes it, sector by sector, to a connected USB drive. The result is a bootable USB stick you can plug into a computer to install or run an operating system.

The typical scenario: your laptop won't boot, you need to reinstall or repair an OS, and the only other computing device you have is an Android phone. EtchDroid lets that phone produce the bootable USB drive.

Supported devices

Device type Support
USB flash drives Supported
USB SD card adapters Supported
USB hard drives / SSDs Some might work
USB docks and hubs May have power issues
Internal SD card slot Not supported
Optical or floppy disk drives Not supported
Thunderbolt-only devices Not supported

Supported disk image types

  • Modern GNU/Linux OS images, including Arch Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, pop!_OS, Linux Mint, FreeBSD, BlissOS, and many more
  • Raspberry Pi SD card images — but you must unzip them first
  • Official Microsoft Windows ISOs from microsoft.com
  • Community-built Windows images made for EtchDroid (be careful: they may contain viruses)
  • Older GNU/Linux OS images from before 2010, such as Damn Small Linux and Puppy Linux

Not supported: Apple DMG disk images.

What it does not require

  • No root access
  • No ads
  • No tracking

Licensing and contributing

EtchDroid is free open-source software licensed under GNU GPLv3. You may distribute builds or bundle it in a custom ROM as long as you don't modify it, or you make the source code available. For special licensing needs — such as distributing a rebranded version or using the code in a proprietary product — you can contact [email protected].

Ways to contribute include translating the app (a full translation from scratch is described as taking no more than 30 minutes) and suggesting UI/UX improvements in the discussions section. The project also accepts donations via Patreon, GitHub Sponsors, and other options on its donations page.